Statute Of LimitationsWhat Is It And Can It Affect Your Case?

Plainly put, the Statute of Limitations is a law which prohibits
prosecution of crimes after a certain duration of time has elapsed.
Stated another way, the Statute of Limitations essentially creates an
“expiration date” for crimes; if the “expiration date” for a crime has
come and passed, charges for that crime can no longer be filed.

Here’s a simple example: The Statute of Limitations for a DUI offense
is one year. This means that, in order to legally prosecute a DUI, the
prosecutor must file charges within one year from the date the DUI is
alleged to have been committed. If for any reason the charges are filed
outside that year, the case must be dismissed as being barred by the Statute of Limitations.

The Statute of Limitations (or “expiration date”) varies among
different crimes. Generally speaking, the more serious the crime, the
longer the Statute of Limitations, i.e., the longer the prosecution has
to file the case before they will be prohibited from doing so based on
the Statute of Limitations. For petty offenses, the Statute of
Limitations is 6 months; For Class 1 and 2 misdemeanor traffic
offenses, the Statute of Limitations is 1 year; For misdemeanors, the
Statute of Limitations is 18 months; for certain felonies the Statute of
Limitations is 3 years; for vehicular homicide and leaving the scene
of an accident resulting in death, the Statute of Limitations is 5
years. Some crimes, such as murder and all sexual offenses against children have no Statute of Limitations. For those crimes which have no
Statute of Limitations, charges can legally be filed at any point,
regardless of how much time has elapsed/passed since the date of the
alleged crime.

While not a terribly frequent occurrence, charges are
occasionally filed outside the Statute of Limitations. As a prosecutor
for 10 years, I handled a handful of cases in which the Statute of
Limitations had run prior to the case having been filed. In my
experience, these errors were not made maliciously or intentionally, but
rather, they were accidental or inadvertent – most commonly the result
of a novice officer or prosecutor who was simply not in the habit of
double-checking the offense date with the Statute of Limitations prior
to filing.

Regardless of how a case gets filed outside the Statute of
Limitations, such a circumstance will almost always require a competent
defense attorney to identify the problem and seek a remedy (dismissal of
the case), as it is neither the responsibility nor the practice of
judges and courts to identify this type of error. Stated differently,
as it is not the judge’s job to identify and raise issues on behalf of either party (a judge’s role is merely to decide
issues raised by either party,) a defense attorney is necessary to
identify that the “expiration date” for a crime has come and gone.
Until or unless a defense attorney discovers his client’s case is
prohibited from being prosecuted, a case filed in violation of the
Statute of Limitations could go unnoticed by the other parties and the
prosecution would proceed as normal – – potentially resulting in a
conviction and sentence. However, if a skilled defense attorney is
involved, assessment and remedy of this error can be relatively swift.

If a defense attorney
discovers his client’s case was filed outside the Statute of
Limitations (and therefore cannot be legally prosecuted,) the defense
attorney should be able to get the case dismissed by filing a Motion
which brings the matter to the prosecutor’s attention. Once the
prosecutor becomes aware that the case is barred by the Statute of
Limitations, the prosecutor should simply dismiss the case.
Unfortunately, however, there are some circumstances which may require
additional action from the defense attorney such as filing more complex
legal documents (i.e., briefs to educate/persuade the prosecutor) or
motions to seek the judge’s intervention.

DISCLAIMER: The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for advice regarding your individual situation. We invite you to contact Hebets & McCallin, and welcome your calls, letters and electronic mail. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send any confidential information to us until such time as an attorney-client relationship has been established.